


A Place For Two

by Rotschild



Series: How to be [2]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Cat Companion, Drug Abuse, Learning How To Emotion, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-30
Updated: 2018-09-30
Packaged: 2019-07-20 17:55:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16142462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rotschild/pseuds/Rotschild
Summary: Maybe Gavin Reeds life has still some room for improvement, even after so many years of emotional gridlock.





	A Place For Two

**Author's Note:**

> This one took a lot longer to work out as I wanted.  
> But you see, cats make everything better.
> 
>  
> 
> Since I write exclusively on my phone these days, all my stuff is formatted to look and read well on a tiny display. If you wonder why there are so many paragraphs, even after singular sentences, this is why. Read my stuff on a phone and your brain won't hurt as much xD

"Time flies, buddy", muttered Gavin and took a deep drag from his cigarette. With utter distaste he snarled at the holo-screen of his personal workstation and watched the cursor blink in and out of the empty line of the online search request. Gavin never before wasted time or energy into research about Cyberlifes doings after his brother was gone from the board and now that he did, the corporation was mostly shut down anyway.

As he clawed himself through add infested online search results, he found out that cyberlife was indeed a monster way bigger than the visions of just one man. Domestic Androids were just a blip in the Corporations turnovers. "War machines, android soldiers, prosthetic and rebuilding projects. Isn't that 'cute'... circle of life an shit", Gavin snorted and was pretty weirded out by the thought that someone who produced the most advanced weapons 'of course' would also come up with the most efficient ways to treat those wounded by them. The hunt for profit and new target audiences was seemingly set without any kind of boundaries. Or morals in general.

But there were still some of Cyberlifes newer departments that made pretty good publicity. The Cyberlife science labs cartographed the deep sea, searched for almost distinct animals in inhabitable places - or replicated the lost ones in Cyberlife zoos. Of course Gavin had heard of those, even though he never had visited one.

Astonished Gavin also learned that not all Cyberlife stores were closed off yet. Over the entire US twenty seven stores survived the ongoing revolution up until now. Of course none of them sold humanoid androids.

As Gavin looked deeper into it, he got that most of those stores were a package deal with the local Cyberlife zoos. They worked the maintenance and sold all the merchandise a wide eyed five year old could ever want. But that left eight stores that weren't made to be android ice bear vets and still had their lights on. Gavin was curious.

That's how he stumbled across the so-called cyberlife shelters. In comparison they were pretty tiny and full of parcels, kind of like a shoe store. You could get in and leave with any domestic animal model Cyberlife ever had on its production list. Mostly they sold cats, dogs, birds and smaller reptiles.

Gavin of course new about android pets. But he never really 'thought' about them. Now with the revolution, what would happen to the android animals?

Were they advanced and intelligent enough to learn and deviate? Would the law have to acknowledge them as people too some day?

Somehow Gavin got the random thought of coming in for work, only to find a moody lioness receptionist behind the counter. A lung full of smoke caught in his throat and he had to cough till tears stung in his eyes.

Of course he wasn't the first guy to think about that. Protests seemed to have already begun and of course PETA were at the front of it all again, that pieces of shit. In the articles Gavin could find, their protesters lifted signs like 'set them free' and 'bloody blue business' and it was all in all pretty ridiculous and predictable.

So of course the Cyberlife shelters were also under pressure to close their doors. As things were now, they gave a last hollered fuck you to public opinion and made a big clearing sale. In the online shops they didn't even show information about what it exactly was they were selling anymore. The shop sites were mostly blank, the pictures long taken down and everything else was just a garbled mess of system specifications, serial numbers and some uninformative patch notes.

It made Gavin think a thought he 'knew' he was certainly about to regret after a night of good sleep.

Sullenly he looked over his shoulder to the wide and open space of his new apartment. Since the evacuation real estate prices plummeted so far, Gavin hadn't been hard pressed anymore to find a flat where he actually wanted to stay. The place was nice and big, with wide windows and some trees along the street. But it was also empty.

He followed a dozen links to a dozen dead ends till he found a Cyberlife shelter down in Florida that wasn't completely cleared out yet. There weren't many parcels left to buy. Gavin's finger hovered over the confirm button as he asked himself if it was even ethical to buy one of those guys. They were still androids after all.

But then Gavin thought of Elijah and that damn dog he made when he was barely thirteen. If he ever saw a hollow thing, that tin can had been it. But these things in the parcels were produced over fifteen years later. Elijah had never been less than a perfectionist.

There was no way these things weren't alive like their humanoid counterparts in some way.

Who knew? Maybe it would like him?

After sitting motionless for almost an hour, Gavin hit confirm and shut his workstation down to prevent himself from immediately chicken out of his dumbass decision.

Even a hollow thing would suit him just fine.  
Who the fuck cared if he shared his living space with a tiny and useless tin can anyway. As if thousands and thousands of people hadn't just done the same some months ago.

He didn't do it because he was 'lonely'.

He was just so very sick and tired of being on his own.

 

* * *

 

Like most of Gavin's decisions, it didn't matter in the end. Even though he got a neat order confirmation, no transaction was actually booked. Not even some weeks later. And Gavin forgot about it, because it had been a most dumbass idea anyway.

It didn't matter.

What mattered was the little lady who laid face down on the crappy carpet floor of her own run down apartment that smelled horrendously of alcohol, cat piss and something that Gavin sure as fuck didn't want to acknowledge.

She looked like she was only in her early twenties. Her skin was white, but even more it was ill colored grey enough that her veins looked like they were drawn on her arms with dark blue ink. She wore nothing but a pair of washed out sweatpants and a damn t-shirt while the fucking temperature in her apartment wasn't even 68 degrees. The T-shirt was way too big for her and had a university fraternity symbol on its back, whatever that even meant.

But the absolute worst of it all was that god awful smell around the place.

Not hers. Even through she laid there for at least five days till someone cared, Gavin had had so much worse.

No, what he couldn't stand was the unmistakable stink of her brass pipe.

"Let's skip the fun part this time and tell me how she died", Gavin groaned and rubbed his eyes that started to itch as soon as he stepped into that damn place. He almost stumbled over the collection of way too many shoes by the entrance.

RK900, who stood just beside him, let out a sharp snort. "I'm a working android, detective. Not a magician", he said and Gavin felt his taxed patience tick another level down. "Then get a move on, dipshit!", he bit back and bared his teeth.

The smell was so sweet and heavy.

Gavin remembered how oily the smoke clung to everything it touched. He remembered how fast his mind got empty and his heart felt big and life was bright with colors he hadn't seen in 'years'.

Angry he lifted his hands to his face and rubbed again at his itching eyes, while a low but not less aggressive hum tore out of his throat.

He hated red Ice. He hated it so damn much, but craved it anyway. With loud sniff he tore himself out of his rigidity and rubbed the pad of his thump hard and repeatedly over his fingertips. Simultaneously he started to do his actual fucking job and stepped through this damn mess of waste and human neglect to find out who or what had killed her.

The couch she had sat on before she stood up to fall over the leg of the coffee table was well used and had burn marks on the left armrest where she most likely had held her pipe. The same marks were to find on the right side, but even more telling were the two beer bottles that had stood on opposite sides of the narrow table that was otherwise full of moldy smelling pizza cartons and Chinese take away. Some of the cartons fell down as she yanked the table forward with her foot. The bottles also fell to the carpet, but there were still the distinctive rings on the smooth wooden surface. A cellphone laid in the junk but it was out of power.

She seemed to have been a fan of Boston Rising. Some fan merch on the walls and on the counter beside the door. On her CD shelves were a lot of Albums of well known metal bands right beside electro-swing and classic interpretations. A landline phone was buried under rejection letters and info brochures of several Detroit universities. Nobody seemed to call these days.

"She was hit and strangled, but she didn't die from it", RK900 said after just some seconds of intense starring at her form on the carpet. It was uncanny how this series worked, with its hundreds of sensors and almost unlimited processing capacity to reconstruct things that happened. Gavin would have been viciously envious if he hadn't an entirely human superpower all of his own. "Organ failure or something?", he asked and RK900 nodded as he stood up again. "Most likely her heart. How did you know?"

Gavin let out a snort and stepped in a wide circle around her, right as lieutenant Anderson greeted the swarming crew from forensics at the front door. "What do we have here?", the old not so drunk drunkard asked almost civil and awake on his way inside.

"Two young and stupid junkies, the perp was out of stuff and wanted hers, she fought, they got her by the throat and she died of shock before they could strangle her to death. Case closed, lights out, good night", Gavin bit back irritably but stopped in his tracks to the door as RK900 corrected him.

"Both her and the perpetrators fingerprints are on the pipe", he said. "There are some traces of Red Ice on the table but nothing in the rest of the apartment. It looks like she bought for instant consumption. They shared the pipe and the perpetrator wanted more of it than she was willing to give up."

Gavin blinked. "Wait, they shared?", he asked skeptically.

"Most likely. The evidence supports this", RK900 said and tilted his head while his grey eyes bore right into Gavin's brain. "Why?"

Gavin blinked again and pulled a face. He new what the stuff did to human brains. It made them angry and possessive. Aggressively so. "Well, I would have never-..."

His jaw clicked shut instantly and he shook his head. "Forget it. Should ask the boyfriend then. Isn't likely he didn't know she was using."

The same way the stuff stunk up a place, it made a person smell like a chemistry set in no time.  
As he went by, Anderson took hold of his arm. "You alright?"

Gavin wanted to break his nose, but he could control his urges unlike that damn arsehole who got that girl. "Don't fucking touch me or I swear to fucking god-..."

Anderson hummed, seemed not quite pleased but let go of Gavin's elbow anyway. On Gavin's way to the hallway he almost bumped right into Connor. "Hey plastic detective!"

Connor tilted his head in greeting. "Hello, detective Reed."

Gavin's grin was sharp as a knife as he pointed with a thumb over his shoulder. "Your little brother was faster, already did your job for you. You can go home now."

It was funny how exasperated Connor looked as his shoulders sunk down just enough to be noticed. It wasn't really clear if he was annoyed by Gavin's attitude or in a sulk because 'the fun part' was already done with. Gavin didn't stay to ask him because he was already sick of the place. "Have a nice evening, gentlemen."

In front of the building and in the dark of night he could finally breathe again. With unsteady fingers he fumbled with the stuff in his pocket and got finally a cigarette between his teeth.

He new the rush of adrenaline came from the sensory memory of burning hot smoke in his lungs, but it calmed his strained nerves and gave him back enough control over his thoughts to be actually able to 'think'. Trading one addiction for another was an ingenious master plan. At least cigarettes made Gavin not want to murder people.

"How did you know?", asked RK900 again as he showed up on the sidewalk beside him. Gavin pulled a face. "Organ failure is the usual side effect of hard drugs these days. If her attacker didn't get her, the drugs did. Not that hard."

RK900 of course wasn't convinced. It was like watching a bird of pray lock onto a target. Right down to the creepy head tilt. "You knew what happened before I did. You didn't even go near her."

Gavin shrugged and took another deep drag of his cigarette.

"You are sweating, Detective. Your heart rate is elevated."

Viciously fast Gavin whipped around, gripped for RK900s collar and pulled back his fist for a punch in pure reflex. "Shut the ever loving fuck up already, it's none of your damn fucking business!"

While RK900 wasn't amused by Gavin's outburst, he didn't look that much concerned either. He just stared and studied and Gavin cringed, because it really wasn't that hard to figure out why Gavin was an even bigger arsehole when involved in cases like this. Most his coworkers got too much accustomed to his black moods. They kind of were idiots, blinded by pure habit.

RK900, however, certainly was not.

His sharp grey eyes narrowed before he let out a breath he did not need. "I won't pry", he said and Gavin laughed humorless as he let go of him. "If you do, I shoot off your useless plastic balls", he growled. RK900 of course wasn't one for unhinged intimidation. "Are you alright, detective?"

Gavin didn't know what made him halt. It was the same mindless and useless question Anderson asked every time. But when RK900 asked it, it somehow... felt different. And he seemed to know that.

Gavin took a deep breath in... and out. And again. And again - until the track marks on his arm stopped itching and the sweat on his face did its job to cool his head down. His eyes still itched. He still felt dire need for a damn shower because the stink clung to his skin and clothes.

"No", he eventually said. "But it's fine. I'm not in any danger of-... It's fine. Come on."

With a last glance at the apartment building he turned and opened the car. RK900 followed without any more questions.

 

* * *

 

"Did you decide on a name yet?", Gavin asked some hours later after a poor attempt of sleep on their way to Emily Gardeners boyfriend. RK900 didn't answer right away which was expected, because it was the one question that made the android actually quite uncomfortable.

"...No", he said two blocks later while his LED spun in blinding yellow. Gavin wasn't surprised. Kind of stifling silence settled over them while RK900 stayed agitated and good boy Gavin decided to help his partner out just a little bit.

"Richard Kerrigan", he said loudly in musing. "Reginald Kingsley. Ronald Kogan. Nines O'Z-... "

"Stop", RK900 interrupted him sharply. "Stop... My designation is RK900."  
Gavin tilted his head. "Yes... your 'designation'. But a designation isn't a name. My designation is 'detective'. My name is 'Reed'. Wouldn't you like something just for yourself?"

Gavin remembered the nineteen thousand ninety nine brothers of RK900 that never were. All their designations would have been RK900 and none of them would have appeared or sounded any different. RK900 seemed to reach the same train of thought. His LED spun in a blip of red. No, he wasn't comfortable with the topic at all.

Gavin concentrated on the road and let out a soundless sigh. "No need for a fried circuit, buddy. RK900 it is. But I'm quite curious. Why has Connor a name and you don't? Well I guess the other RK800s were also called 'Connor'... but still. Why did they gave him a name at all?"

RK900 narrowed his eyes. "You should ask him that", he said, but he knew well enough that Gavin never would. "Since Connor is a prototype he was made to be unique, at least for a while. It's not that far fetched that a technician took a liking to him and the name was given to help him blend in in the precinct."

Gavin hummed lowly. "So maybe 'Connor' is just the son or grandson of a technician there?"

RK900 crossed his arms on his chest. "Most likely, yes."

Gavin hummed again and drifted into deep thought. What made these guys give a name to one android but not to the other? If one series was named 'Connor', why stop there?

It kind of sounded like a lost marketing-opportunity, too. Who wanted to buy an 'RK800' if they could get a 'Connor' instead. It was weird.

"If you ever change your mind about names and designations and stuff, just tell me", he said and observed in the reflection of the windshield as RK900 shoulders slowly relaxed again.

\- an obnoxiously loud honk made Gavin jump.

No other Android in Detroit would ever get again the opportunity to study an example of this kind of wildly excessive road rage up close like that without the possibility of bodily harm.

 

* * *

 

The boyfriends name was David Sawyer and he lived near Davenport University. A nice place. A really, really nice place for someone with a girlfriend on hard drugs on the other side of town.

Gavin looked up the apartment complex and asked himself how much rent an apartment like that would take. As David opened the door the pungent smell of fathers money clung to him like a shroud and Gavin wasn't really surprised. The guy, in his early twenties, a music student and as successful with it as a rotten potato, wouldn't have had a damn cent in his account if it wasn't for daddy.

Gavin hated those guys. They never paid the deal on time and Joel pestered him to make things right as if Gavin was-... well. No nice memories at all.

David stated he knew Emily through some guys on campus and liked her quite a lot. While calling him 'boyfriend' seemed to him a little premature since they only were dating.

As Gavin and RK900 sat down on the white couch, David went to the kitchen to get them, or at least Gavin, something to drink.

"She was funny and so nice", David told. As he came back from the kitchen he was crying again. He didn't show the usual signs of Red Ice addiction. His eyes were bruised, but that could be from crying. He also didn't smell like it, but a week of distance and some extensive showers could do that. "She listened to my compositions and didn't laugh. She was so... bright and full of life."

Gavin called bullshit, but didn't say anything. It wasn't impossible for Emily to ever have been a shining personality, but the side effects of Red Ice were all consuming. She would have been moody, unpredictable and easily irritable if not a danger to herself and others.

"Thanks", Gavin said as he took the glass from Davids shaking hands before the guy folded back onto his likewise white armchair and buried his face in his hands but not before he shot RK900 a look of open distaste. Gavin should have told him right then and there that in matters of emotions and empathy David most likely had better chances with the android. What an arsehole.

His luck that RK900 did not care. His eyes inspected the glass that Gavin was holding before he folded his hands together and started the questions. "You were the one who called the police to her place last evening, Mr. Sawyer. Why?"

David bared his teeth and pulled his arms around his knees. "She was... deep in some kind of shit, I don't know. I never asked. I should have. We were dating and all, so I should have."

RK900 asked again. "Mr. Sawyer. Why did you call the police?"

David gave him a dirty look and answered to Gavin. "Last week... We had a fight. Something stupid, I can't even remember, but we parted not on the best of terms and then... I didn't hear from her at all for days and... I guess I just panicked."

When couples said they fought about something nonsensical they 'couldn't even remember', Gavin called bullshit as well. But it didn't necessarily mean anything. The most likely suspects in a case like this were boyfriend or dealer. So it was still to see what would stick.

"Didn't you try to reach her first?", Gavin asked and took a sip. David nodded and hummed. "Of course. Tried the landline multiple times, she had no mobile. She was kind of weird that way... "

No, but it was possible she used her mobile only for her big boy contacts and didn't want to mix things up.

"No messages on her voicemail", said RK900 and lifted his brows.

"Because I never leave those!", spat David back at him in a sudden outburst. His cheeks flushed in deep red as he lowered his head. "It's pointless. I don't even listen to my own voice mails. So I don't leave them for others."

Gavin nodded. "Okay. Where were you last Thursday, Mr. Sawyer."

His eyes widened. David looked deeply offended. But he swallowed his anger and answered like the good boy he was so far. "After Emily and I had our... misunderstanding on Wednesday afternoon, I went to my rehearsal room at the campus. I needed a quiet place to calm down. I was there every day since, from eight am to seven pm."

Gavin hummed. "Was someone with you that day?"

David shook his head while his taint turned kind of sickly grey. "No... No, I guess not. Maybe someone heard me play, but-... no, I was alone."

His shoulders shook as David was whacked again by deep heaving sobs. Gavin's face stayed blank. "I am deeply sorry for your loss, Mr. Sawyer."

Gavin wasn't good at this part of his job. At least his coworkers had enough brain to not make him do 'the calls'. Gavin would do it, of course. But he guessed the DPD's image couldn't recover from every of his emotional fuck ups.

However, since Gavin had a partner at his side that was, at least for now, even worse at emoting, Gavin shone like a star and RK900 got another of those dirty looks. Gavin went with a docile smile that maybe showed a little too many teeth.

"Would you mind if I smoke?"  
David twitched before he rubbed at his eyes and pulled a face. "A- actually", he mumbled. "I do. You see, the curtains-..."  
Gavin waved it away, yes he saw it all. The whole apartment seemed to be sterile white. There was no sign of smoke, no stains, not even vine bottles on the counter of the open kitchen. It looked like the place was barely lived in.

"Then please excuse me for a moment, gentlemen. Behave", they both could chose at whom it was actually aimed. Carefully Gavin put the glass down on the shiny glass table and stood up to start strolling. "Uh... where do I find the bathroom?", he asked and pointed at the corridor. David didn't leave RK900 out of his sight. "Down the way, last door on the right."

He sounded pretty stressed out. Hm...

Gavin followed the instructions and took a short break for himself. In front of the bathroom mirror he took a look at his hollow eyes and his still way to grey taint. Damned to fucking hell, he needed a smoke. He went with two hands full of cold water to his face instead.

The bathroom was obsessively clean like the rest of the apartment. It smelled sharply of multiple cleaning agents, almost enough to make his eyes water. On the contrary, personal products were sparse and barely touched. The bottle of body wash that Gavin gave a shake felt full and almost unused. It was weird, like props in a dollhouse.

On his way back he stopped in his tracks as he heard a quiet but almost desperate sounding noise. right beside him someone or something scratched at the door that led most likely to the bedroom. Gavin laid a hand against the wood and felt something move against it from the other side. Gavin was way too curious, so he opened the door just wide enough for a lean little tabby to slip through.

A pretty little thing with wide green eyes and a pelt striped in vibrant orange colors. As it looked up at him it gave a little sound with its tail high in the air. Slowly Gavin got on one knee and held out his hand. The little thing sniffed at his fingertips before it leaned its head into Gavin's hand. Just some seconds later it rubbed in steady pushes against him and almost crawled into his lab. Gavin chuckled. The thing was warm and soft and... nice. No LED or anything, so it had to be a living-... a 'fleshy' thing.

Something nagged at the back of his mind, as he carefully pulled the eager cat up onto his arm and went back to the living room were he heard nothing but stone cold silence since he left.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Sawyer", Gavin said as he sat down on the couch again - with the cat still on his arm. "Got a little distracted. I didn't want to pry or anything. I just noticed this little guy. Was very unhappy where you put him. Huh? Weren't you?"

Gavin scratched its throat and pulled a little at its ear, till the little tiger bit playfully at his fingers and rumbled another low purr. "Really pretty this one. Do you put it always in your room when you have guests over?"

David looked kind of... horrified. But before Gavin could think up a possible explanation, his expression changed to angered distaste. "I would really much like it, if you would leave it to me where I accommodate my pet."

Gavin watched him and answered with a shrug. "Yeah, sorry. Hope the little guy is alright?"

David snorted. "The little pest is fine. Just not used to strangers."

Gavin hummed and twitched as the cat hopped up his arm to his neck were it walked right over his shoulders and batted playfully at RK900 who lifted a finger to its tiny paw with an equally curious look in his eyes. "U-huh... You know, we couldn't find any close relatives. Do you know someone we should get in contact with?"

David stared at the cat and seemed a little distracted till he sharply shook his head. "I-... No. We didn't talk about that. I don't know."

Frustration crept up Gavin's spine because, weren't those guys dating? Why didn't they talk about anything useful?!

But David seemed to think so, too. His face was red in mortification as he stared to the floor, so Gavin swallowed his rising anger and let it be. "You know", he said and held his voice as neutral as he was able to. "We found traces of Red Ice in her apartment", he said and tilted his head as the cats head pushed against his ear. "Traces and a recently used pipe. The stuff is also the reason she died. You wouldn't know something about that, would you?"

Davids face went from blotchy red to yellow-ish grey and became strikingly similar in color to spoiled milk. But he didn't lift his head again. His shoulders quivered. "I- I don't know... ", he mumbled breathlessly. "She-... She was in trouble, but... I don't know!"

Annoyed Gavin pulled a face but swallowed his rising anger. Even if it felt like a damn knot in his throat. "It's fine Mr. Sawyer", he said. "Hard times and all. Just , please, should you remember something that could help us", Gavin pulled one of his crumbled up business cards out of his pocket, pressed it to the glass table and shoved it in Davids direction. "Just call, alright?"

David nodded through a visible hiccup and took the glass from the table as well as the card. "Alright", he mumbled as his shoulders lowered with a deep exhale.

Gavin looked at RK900 but the android already stood up and waited by the door. A calm presence with a sharp eye. Gavin glanced up at the cat that still sat on its watch point on his shoulder, before he reached up and lifted it onto his arm again. So he stood as well and held out his hand for the last formal goodbye.

But as soon as David stepped forward with this sad and lopsided smile on his face - the cat tensed up and viciously spat a hissed warning for him to not come any closer.

Gavin blinked.

The apartment was white and sterile. No indication of a pet, no play things or litter box and no hairs. Davids apartment seemed empty, where Emily's did not. There had been traces of a shared life everywhere, even with the abominable stink of Red Ice - and it had reeked of cat piss.

Gavin looked up. "The cat is hers, isn't it?"

Out of the corner of his eyes Gavin saw RK900 turn and rush closer while the cat leaped out of his arms the same moment as David lifted the glass. With a desperate howl David slammed it to his head and Gavin just wasn't fast enough to get his arms up in defense.

The glass broke at Gavin's temple and water splashed into his eyes, while shards cut like ragged knifes into the unprotected skin of his face. It happened viciously fast and in the blink of an eye blood was absolutely 'everywhere' and Gavin stumbled disoriented and couldn't see anything while the deafening hum of adrenaline in his brain made him utterly stupid.

Dazed Gavin turned with the force of the blow and went down as graceful as a sack of potatoes.

Heavily he fell to his knees and lifted a hand to his temple as soon as he realized it actually hurt like fuck. Blood was on his face, in his hair, on his hands-...

The last time Gavin saw so much of his own blood, he used his service revolver in drunk stupor and almost killed himself. His heart rate spiked. He felt quite sick.

Suddenly RK900 appeared in Gavin's narrowed down field of vision. "Are you alright, detective?", he asked as he went for Gavin's shoulders to pull him more upright, all with a sense of urgency. "Are you alright?!"

Gavin wasn't sure. He felt quite funny. So he shrugged and cleaned his bloody hand on his shirt while he concentrated hard on not throwing up his meager breakfast. "Breathe, detective!", the android instructed sharply and pressed a hand to his abdomen and really, Gavin hadn't noticed at all. With a deep gasp he sucked desperately needed oxygen into his burning lungs and wouldn't you know, while he still felt utterly sick, at least his hands stopped tingling.

RK900 lifted both of his hands to Gavin's head, shining white plastic exposed all up to his elbows, as his fingertips splayed through Gavin's sticky hair and searched through the blood for the actual wound. As he found it he lifted Gavin's head with utmost care so he could inspect the damage with a weirdly blank expression on his face while his LED flickered from yellow to red and back in flickering blinks of light. "There is so much blood. Why does it bleed so much?"

He spoke as fast as a spooked kid. Gavin wasn't sure if RK900 was worried or if this was some kind of morbid fascination. In his actual state Gavin didn't really care either way. He winced as RK900 inadvertently pulled at the open skin, but decided to indulge his curiosity. "Design flaw, I guess", he mumbled with a head and mouth full of cotton wool. "It's nothing serious. Head wounds just bleed like a bitch. It's fine."

RK900 observed him eerily silent. Suddenly his LED blinked in fast pulses of yellow. "An ambulance will be waiting for you outside, detective. Come on, up."

RK900 pulled him onto his feet with ease. Disoriented Gavin held tightly onto his shoulder and arm because somehow he wasn't sure anymore how to stand without falling flat on his face. His sense of balance was utterly fucked up. Gavin shook his head like a dog to somehow clear the tar out of his shaken brain, but all it did was make him even more nauseous. He really shouldn't do that again. "Concussion", he rasped. "Nothing too serious, you fussing prick."

RK900 lifted an eyebrow but didn't comment any further. Just looped an arm under Gavin's to hold him upright while Gavin stumbled like a newborn kitten. RK900 made it look utterly effortless, the way he pulled him upright and over the threshold as if Gavin was some weightless and fragile maiden.

On the corridor the first thing Gavin noticed despite his rolling stomach and half closed eyes was David, face down on the carpet. "Oh", he mumbled intelligently. RK900 wasn't concerned. "Just a concussion, like you. He will be alright."

Gavin stared at Davids sunken form on the floor with his slightly open mouth and what looked like a bloody knocked out tooth right beside his slack face.

Just a concussion, huh?

In opposition to RK900s fussing over Gavin, he didn't check on David at all. Well, Gavin did not remind him to.

 

* * *

 

Since RK900 had till now no experience with damaged humans and Gavin's instruction to leave him the fuck alone were just not good enough after he almost stumbled face first down the stairs, the prick of course had asked Connor for advice. So not only was there just some minutes later an ambulance full of way too friendly androids waiting outside, but the lieutenant and his pet were sniffing around as well.

Gavin had some violent urges, but knew it wasn't fair to fuck with the working androids around him who at least were willing to stop the bleeding at his temple and give him stuff to stop him from barfing out his guts. Five stitches from his hairline down to his ear. Another scar for the collection.

With an angry snarl on his face Gavin sat under a brightly orange shock blanket and chewed away on the filter of his cigarette. Bad tempered he watched as the androids worked now on getting David onto his feet again, after that bastard got cuffed and marched, or rather dragged, down the stairs by Anderson. At least the damn fucker looked in similar kinds bloody and rattled.

"You 'knew' damn well he did it, didn't you?", asked Gavin moodily and turned to RK900 who stood for quite some time now almost motionless beside Gavin at the car like some kind of watch dog.

There was a significant second of silence before the android answered. "I did", he said with his voice flat and toneless. At least he looked sufficiently uncomfortable with the outcome of his omission - which meant his face betrayed no sign of emotion at all. Gavin swallowed and closed his eyes. Silently he counted to five. "How long?", he asked.

RK900s LED spun in a blip of yellow and it was kind of comforting to know that even damn plastic-brained androids had tells when they were about to spew bullshit. Gavin was ready to chew through his throat till he reached RK900s exoskeleton but as the android actually opened his mouth again the answer was so obnoxious it just had to be genuine. "Since he gave you the glass of water."

Davids fucking fingerprints.

Again Gavin closed his eyes and took a deep breath that lifted his shoulders. His head felt big like a balloon while he could feel his own elevated heartbeat ticking behind his eyes like a bomb about to go off. As he closed them he couldn't tell which way was up and he was so god awful nauseous. He wanted to throttle that damn android. "Fuck you, Dipshit", he snarled. "Why the fuck didn't you-..."

But then he had a silent revelation. He would have lifted his brows in silent accusation if it hadn't hurt so much. "You didn't think I would notice", Gavin murmured and narrowed his eyes. "You didn't think I would work it out myself."

RK900 observed him with that sharp stare of his as if he was able to read the sparks of electricity that traveled inside of Gavin's brain. Or at least as if he would pretty much like to. "You figured out what happened in Southfield before I did", he said factual. "I was... curious. I wanted to see if 'you' would see. But you didn't, so I waited."

Gavin couldn't help but let out a snort and rolled his eyes. "To think I got my face busted even more for that. What was your master plan after leaving the place, genius?"

RK900 tilted his head - and suddenly shrugged in an unnerving familiar way that bordered on 'creepy impression'. "I would have told you, detective. We would have got him anyway, just some minutes later."

"Efficient much, huh?", Gavin said annoyed. RK900 lifted his brows and showed his teeth in an out of practice smile that looked still like a programmers goofy design template. "You 'did' figure it out, detective. But not as fast as me this time."

Gavin snorted and closed his eyes again. "Dick", he said without any heat. But his grin fell flat as a new wave of nausea made his stomach roll and the severe headache tore on the meager rest of his patience. "Don't experiment on me like that ever again."

RK900 stopped smiling instantly. His eyes flickered up to the stitched cut at Gavin's temple. "I won't", he said. "I got you needlessly into danger and reacted poorly to prevent further harm. I won't."

Gavin looked up into his grey eyes and could actually 'see' that he was sorry. It was funny because he surely didn't learn that from Gavin. But there was also more of an underlying admission there. RK900 didn't think Gavin would catch on at all. That's why he already stood by the door.

Gavin exceeded at least two times now the expectations of a calculating machine. The most advanced machine Cyberlife created so far. If that wasn't some boost for his ego.

A smirk tucked at the corner of his mouth as a deep chuckle moved his shoulders. "How's 'Robert Kincaid'?"

RK900s shoulders lowered in the perfect impression of an exasperated sigh. "Shut the fuck up, Reed."

 

* * *

 

The interrogation of Mr. David Sawyer was done by lieutenant Anderson. After the paperwork went through, the symptoms of Gavin's concussion were severe enough to have him barf into the paper bin under his desk, so he had to take a pass on that arsehole. But he stayed at the station and dared anyone to comment, because he was a persistent and deadly curious piece of shit.

Some hours later in the late afternoon he sat behind the observation mirror while RK900 stood at attention right behind his chair and followed the proceedings inside the interrogation room.

Connor was there beside them as well, equally stiff and motionless, but with his eyes not on the suspect. Like a creep he stared at Anderson and seemed as openly moonstruck as one could get. It tore at Gavin's already badly strained nerves. In the precinct he of course wasn't allowed to smoke to calm down, so he compromised again with an unlit cigarette between his teeth and chewed the damn filter to pieces.

Anderson sat down and let David Sawyer, that miserable sod, cry his bodily fluids all over the place. "I didn't do it! ", he pressed out through hiccuping sobs. "I didn't kill her, I swear, I didn't do it, I didn't do anything!!"

Even through Gavin was out and out compromised, now he could see what David had been missing before. The twitching muscles, the clammy skin, the wide eyes, the hysterics...

David just... hadn't looked to him like the right type for the hard stuff. Gavin had thought it had to be Emily, not him... and as it eventually turned out, he had been kind of right with that.

"Now, son. You told us a lot of things you didn't do and that's alright. But we have to know what you actually 'did' do. We need to know what happened."

Gavin swallowed down the memory of a brain full of distorted thoughts and a throat filled with bile. Anderson was good with the junkies. Sometimes Gavin still dreamed about his soothing 'dad isn't angry' voice and woke up shaking in cold sweat.

"Come on. We know you didn't kill her. But you hurt her, didn't you?", Anderson said as he leaned his elbows on the table. "You maybe didn't intent to, but-..."

David was a truly ugly crier through and through with lots of snot and water. It looked and sounded pretty much genuine. But like a typical Red Ice addict he was also easily rattled. "I wanted to!", he spat. "I wanted to hurt her! I-... I was so angry, I was furious and I wanted her to hurt!"

But his head sunk down again as he wept in desperation. "But I didn't want her to die. I didn't, I swear, I didn't...!"

Davids shoulders shook and Gavin noticed Anderson's deep but silent sigh through the way his own shoulders moved. Dissatisfied he lifted a hand and rubbed his brows. "What made you so angry, David? What did she do?"

As it turned out Emily had been indeed a dealer. Or at least a middleman for the new forming drug rings in Detroit's underbelly. David had met her on campus as some friends of his wanted to have some fun. She was the right person who knew how and where to get it.

Not only got she some high-society boy with some deep seated daddy- and self-esteem issues hooked, she also made him pay a lot more than the stuff was actually worth on the street. But for a horribly green junky with no contacts at all, who had no idea where to get the stuff he so suddenly craved and utterly terrified for his father to find out -...

David had made an absolutely asinine deal.

"The apartment is mine, I-... I paid for it. I-... Sometimes I stayed there", David cried. Gavin was sure the times he stayed, David had been too high to do anything else, anyway.

Gavin felt the sudden horror of old memories creep up his legs like hellish demons that tried to climb out of the pit and chewed his cigarette till the muscles of his jaw locked shut. He hadn't been anything like David back then. He hadn't been rich and stupid, but stupid all the same. Joel, though... he had been a lot like Emily. He hadn't cared. Even though-... He just hadn't. For anything or anyone but himself.

"I came to her- into my own damn flat- to get the stuff she fucking owed me!", David cried out. "And she owed me a damn lot, but she always gave me just the scraps and- I just needed the stuff, alright?!"

Anderson didn't even flinch as David slammed his hands on the table, so outraged his whole form shivered with need. Anderson had seen it lots and lots of times before. David surely wasn't special.

"So that day it had been the same? Just some shards?", Anderson asked, still with this tone of voice that made Gavin think of his father. As his breath caught in his throat he felt warm fingertips tingle over his shoulder. Gavin didn't turn around.

"No!!", David roared before he took a hesitant breath. "I-... Yes. Yes, just some shards, but-..."  
A new wave of tears flooded his eyes and his head sank down while he pulled at his hair. "She... she said she wanted to get out? Stop-... she wanted to stop with the stuff and just... leave..."

Gavin saw it in his mind. The moment David realized that he had been hooked and used and was now done with. Again Gavin's mind drifted through old and long buried memories of Joel. About how he had pulled Gavin along into all sorts of shit, because he had known as long as he had the stuff, Gavin jumped as soon as he called for it.

But it had even been worse with Emily Gardener. David cried and talked and talked and cried about something that sounded as if it could have been some kind of comforting relationship. David rented the apartment for almost six months now. Inside it had looked quite personal. A shared existence all over the place. Emily got David hooked, used him for all he was worth but somehow also, as months went by, mistook Davids loyalty and need for something it had never been.

Emily Gardener might have been a horrible person that also had felt quite lonely.

"She wanted to stop. She wouldn't get me more. She said she wouldn't and that I should be so very thankful", David spat the word with vitriol.

Thankful. Yes, Gavin should have been thankful, either. Should be thankful, that Joel was there because without him he was just a lowlife without anything to call his own. Without anyone to care. Joel cared. That's why he-...

Gavin twitched as blood hot sweat trickled down his hairline and eventually dropped down onto the back of his clenched fists.

With wide eyes he stared at David and suddenly realized that this pathetic sniffling arsehole on that chair could have been him if things hadn't turned in his favor by some other unhinged lowlife getting to Joel faster than him. The night Anderson had sat him down on that very chair-... It could have been Gavin.

And Anderson knew it, too. The subtle way he leaned back didn't do anything to distract from the short but knowing glance he directed at the mirror.

Gavin couldn't move. He opened his suddenly sand dry mouth and closed it again. His vocal chords strained through a slowly rising but hurtfully rumbling snarl. As he came down enough to understand what he was doing, RK900 held his arm to stop Gavin from smashing the mirror with the chair he had sat on prior his demonic visions of a well loathed face from the past.

"Don't ... fucking ... touch me, Tin Can!!", Gavin gasped through the sensory memory of lungs filled with oily smoke and a sudden sickness that made his stomach roll. RK900s eyes were wide like that of a deer in headlights and Gavin fucking liked it that way. "Get the fuck away from me, or I fucking break you! I break fucking both of you!!", he clamored as he remembered Connor who still stood in the corner as a silent observer.

The chair slipped out of Gavin's numb fingers and crashed to the floor. RK900 seemed way too surprised to hold him back and Gavin didn't care. He hurt. He was so angry he hurt and he couldn't breath and he just needed to get the fuck out.

As soon as Gavin was able to twist his arm out of RK900s plastic white hand, he left. He didn't want to go to the bathroom because he knew he wouldn't be able to stand his own reflection in the mirror. The storage room was too small and would make his lungs burn with irrational fear of being trapped in place.

So Gavin went to the cellar. The evidence room was usually empty and Gavin had no reason to be there, so no one would search him there for a while either.

With rapidly heaving shoulders Gavin stumbled through the glass door. Like he had wanted, he was alone. He wanted to scream. He needed a smoke so badly, the craving burned his throat.

Almost an hour later he still sat hidden behind the console with his head pressed to his knees.

The door opened but Gavin didn't move. He knew these steps, sharp and clear like a pair of scissors. Gavin didn't look up. He just didn't have the energy to move. The sound of rustling cloths and a heavy weight settling down right in front of him made utterly clear that Gavin was as of now closely monitored.

"He took the cat because he didn't want it to starve", RK900 said into the deafening silence. "He came back for it two days later and took it. He didn't call someone then."

Gavin's answering grunt made clear how little he thought it mattered. He was too tired for that. But RK900 didn't stop talking there. "He panicked the moment you noticed. He said he was sorry. About everything. He said he would give everything to get a chance to prevent all what had happened."

Gavin let out an ugly snort and finally lifted his head. Leaned it carefully against the console at his back to not shake up the mush of what was inside even more. "He 'could have' prevented it", he said with a bitter taste on his tongue. "He could have saved her. Red Ice... under huge amounts of stress it is known to sometimes shock the system. A lot of junkies die of cardiac arrest."

Gavin wrinkled up his nose and bared his teeth in a snarl without heat or energy. "If he had been smart he had performed CPR. It's possible to make it out of that. She could have woken up to be a horrible excuse of a human being somewhere else. But he was too high of his arse and too full of venom and spite. So she died."

His mind drifted back to Joel.

Gavin surely had hated Joel's ugly guts and sometimes photo realistic visions of his hands squeezing around his neck had made Gavin think he had actually done it. Just for some minutes or hours until Joel called Gavin in again to be his broken and unhinged bodyguard for a little while longer.

If Joel had laid on that carpet, would have Gavin been the better person who saved his waste of a life...?

"Reed", RK900 said low and silent like a plea for Gavin's attention. "David Sawyer for all of his faults is not a mindless, wrathful monstrosity."

'- and you aren't either' he said in all but words.

Gavin was so tired of being angry. To bounce between nothing and depressive hatefulness again and again, sometimes so fast, people risked whiplash just from interacting with him. It drained all of his strength... and made his existence as hollow as it was lonely.

"I called you 'Tin Can' again", Gavin rasped through the lump that formed thickly in his throat.

RK900 stared attentively while his LED blinked in rapid sequences of yellow and red. "You also tried to name me 'Richard' so you could call me 'Dick' instead."

Gavin couldn't help the unwanted watery chuckle. "Damn, you noticed."

RK900s lips curled into one of those creepy template smiles. "Of course I did."

Gavin was exhausted. He wanted to curl into himself, he wanted to disappear - right now he wanted to die. Wanted someone to put him finally out of this never ending misery. A deep shuddering breath moved his shoulders.

"Hey... Can you do me a favor?", he asked tiredly. RK900 blinked while his LED flickered mindless Morse Code through the dark room in sudden bursts of red and yellow. "Of course, Reed."

Gavin closed his eyes and thought about his violent outbursts, his blank expressions or his sudden blackouts he couldn't control. For the love of god, Gavin didn't want another useless therapy.

He swallowed and opened his burning eyes. "You and... and Connor. You can scan for this thing... with the stress levels. In deviants. Does this work somehow with humans, too?"

RK900 tilted his head, slowly like a reptile, as his smile switched to a look of thoughtfulness. "It does", he said. "But not as accurate. While I can scan for the processor occupancy rates in other androids, stress levels in humans are a lot... messier. Not as easily predictable."

Gavin shook his head, slowly and uninterested. "You don't have to predict anything. But can you please tell me? The next time, when I am about to-... You know... "

RK900 hesitated. He suddenly had that look that meant he was doing android stuff behind his eyes in rapid speed. Gavin was sure he scanned him right this moment. His eyes moved sharply, not as if he was thinking in the way a human did. It looked like he was cleaning out an interface. As if he was shifting through petabytes of data. Just some blinks later it was done and he looked up into Gavin's tired and watery eyes with a look full of determination. "Of course, Reed."

Gavin felt the tension leave his muscles. He curled into himself once more as a pathetic hiccup moved his whole body. "Thanks..."

RK900s voice sounded muffled through the rushing and throbbing blood in Gavin's ears. "Come on up, now. I will get you home."

Gavin sighed and felt barely like a human anymore.

"...thanks..."

 

* * *

 

RK900 took his car keys without a word and Gavin just let him. His head throbbed with his every move and he was just too exhausted to pretend he wasn't hurt or tired. On the way home he almost fell asleep weren't it for his rolling stomach that still didn't believe his brain which way was up.

As he pulled out his keys and went up for the door, RK900 followed him. Gavin just didn't question it.

But as if all the stuff that had happened today wasn't bad enough yet, Gavin was staggered to find a shining white parcel in front of his apartment door. White without any markings but for a dark blue ribbon that reminded Gavin instantly of blueblood. He couldn't remember ordering anything, but...

He took it in anyway. As soon as he went over the threshold he put his keys on the dresser beside the door and made a bee line for his couch. All he needed was to sit down and maybe stop moving for some days and everything would be fine again. He didn't notice he closed his eyes until he heard some uncomfortable shuffling by the door.

RK900 had come inside right behind him, but seemed unsure what else to do - except for staring at and scanning all the moving boxes that were still in use, the layers of dust and the lack of most common furniture. Surely that plastic prick was silently judging.

Gavin snorted. "Hey, dipshit."

RK900 turned. "You don't have to stand around like some horror puppet on standby or I put you in the broom closet", Gavin bit out without the usual heat, because right now he didn't actually want to provoke a fight. "Just... dunno, sit down or something, you're creeping me out."

RK900 tilted his head, blinked slowly and answered with a surprisingly friendly: "Sure, detective."

In suddenly quite confident strides he went through the maze of boxes - and sat down right in front of Gavin on the floor. Well... That wasn't really what he had meant, but... 'sure'.

"What's in there?", asked the plastic detective with his superior nano tech brain and the sensors behind his eyes that could detect even the slightest traces of desperately needed evidence across half a room in distance. Gavin was too tired to forge a smile. "Don't you already know?"

RK900 blinked. "I am reasonably certain. I am merely curious to why."

Gavin maybe would have laughed if he had the energy. With a deep huff he looked down at the parcel in his lap. Not much bigger than a shoe box, not that heavy, something inside with a solid weight. Yeah, whatever...

With numb fingers Gavin pulled the ribbon and opened the box like one would rip off a loose band-aid. After he cleared out some padding, his heart stuttered a full beat. For one solid moment he was convinced some sick fuck had stuffed a dead animal into a box to leave it at his doorstep. Gavin was indeed familiar with dead rats and pig blood. That's another reason why he had wanted to move.

As he pulled the motionless thing out, he was rather relieved to find no blood, red or blue, whatsoever. But the thing that he held by the scruff of its neck was stone cold nonetheless.

It was a cat.

A weird looking thing without a pelt or any hair to speak of. An elegant long face with big grey eyes and even bigger ears. The plastic clip on its ear called it a 'sphinx' and the right now dully flickering white ring on its temple made clear it was indeed an android. Only now Gavin remembered his order. His face flushed instantly in mortification.

"Why did someone send you a cat, detective?", RK900 asked in an open invite for conversation which was pretty transparent. But there was no denying that the android pretty much would like to know. His gaze fixed on the naked and motionless thing with open fascination, like it did in Davids apartment with its fleshy brother.

Gavin went through the remaining content of the parcel. A thick user manual, a white tin can and some other plastic stuff. The serial number on the manual read CA-T007. Gavin let out a silent snort. CA for the Cyberlife animal series. Somewhere at the Cyberlife tower some scientist nerd patted himself on the back for that ingenious designation.

"What, you never seen a cat before?", he asked RK900 in sharp annoyance.

RK900 like ever wasn't cowed in the slightest by Gavin's aggressive shift of moods. He simply didn't care, as if he somehow new with certainty, Gavin didn't mean any of the stuff he said. Even through Gavin himself wasn't sure that he actually didn't.

"I was created to interact with humans. I have only basic knowledge and understanding of animals and pets, or why humans like them", RK900 said while he lifted a hand and shifted his index- and middle finger over one of the cats big ears in a long downwards stroke. "I stay at the station. There are no cats, but one time lieutenant Anderson brought his dog along as he fetched Connor from the precinct."

He sounded so cheerful as he said it. Right as if that bullshit happened to be one of the happiest memories he-... wait. "'Stay at the station'?!", Gavin repeated daftly slow. "What do you mean, you 'stay at the'-... You have no home or something?"

The Android lifted his eyes from the cat to look into Gavin's and seemed quite amused. "I don't need one, detective. I am an android."

Suddenly Gavin felt quite... horrified. Sure, RK900 had no need for a bedroom, or a kitchen, or a bathroom, but-...

Viciously fast and hard Gavin slammed his arm full of CA-T007 right into RK900s chest. "Take the thing and wait here."

Then he basically sprung to his feet and went on stiff legs straight for the bathroom. As soon as the door was shut behind him he wanted to scream his lungs raw at that god damn stupid face in the mirror. Had RK900 stayed at the station for literally three months now and that damn mindless detective of his simply hadn't noticed?!

Holy fucking shit, Gavin needed a shower before he broke something. He couldn't stay under the water too long because it was making him even more dizzy and he had to sit down in the tub so he didn't risk cracking his head even more open in a fall, but at least he got rid of the blood all over himself and smelled and looked a lot more like an actual sane human being as it was done. Even though his headache got only worse.

When he was dry again, Gavin hadn't the drive or energy to get himself into anything more than a shirt and sweatpants but fuck it, he knew the android wouldn't care. As he shuffled back into the main room, he went straightaway for that one a lot smaller moving box that rested beside the couch.

RK900 perked up like a guard dog as soon as Gavin came back. "You really should sit down, detective. Your vitals are quite-..."

"And you really should shut the fuck up", Gavin interrupted him instantly while he went to his knees and rummaged through all that useless content.

Out of the corner of his eyes he saw how RK900 fiddled with the CA-T007 thing. It looked almost as if-...

Gavin turned around just fast enough to see how RK900 pushed a fine plastic tube down the cats throat that opened in a wide funnel. With a patient smile the android lifted the white tin can out of the parcel, popped the lash with a flick of his thumb and poured ice blue thirium right down into the cats guts. Gavin pulled a face. "What the fuck are you even doing...?"

RK900 didn't look up from his task - just shrugged in that eerily familiar way that made Gavin instantly think of alien replacer bots out of old horror films. "I follow the instructions", he said.

Gavin tilted his head and watched RK900s movements. It wasn't the first time he had seen him mimic Gavin's own mannerisms back at him. It just got him this time curious enough to actually ask. "How can you do that so easily?"

RK900 lifted his eyes to Gavin with a frown and looked as if he asked some kind of trick question. "By reading the user manual, detective."

By reading the fucking-...

"Not the instructions, you useless bolt brain!", Gavin groused and rubbed the root of his nose between his too cold fingertips. "You-... I don't know, you mimic people as if you were made for that."

RK900 lifted his brows and stared at Gavin with an intensity that made clear he was scanning him once more. He then slowly turned his body in Gavin's direction and looked again like he did android stuff behind his eyes till his face suddenly split into a wide and nasty grin that made Gavin instantly think of horrible days and cold reflections. "Think you green fucker will be able to replace 'me', dipshit?"

Whatever Gavin held in his hand right now, it slipped through his numb fingers and shattered with a loud noise, right as Gavin lost the balance on his heels and sat heavily down onto the floorboards. An ice cold shudder worked its way down his spine while bright red color flooded his vision.

Gavin took some deep and calming breaths before he felt steady enough to not react with violence to his own reflected voice. "Don't you fucking do that ever again."

As fast as the creepy mirage of himself appeared on RK900s face, the illusion vanished again. He studied Gavin's reaction with open curiosity before he literally explained himself in huge detail. "I actually 'was' made for that, detective. I was designed for deep undercover operations and to appear as human as possible. Even to imitate my targets and sow doubt and confusion if it were to help archive my objective. It was also meant as a social feature."

RK900 blinked slowly and his eyelids fluttered as if he recalled a user manual. This time the one for his own model. He suddenly talked in a voice that reminded Gavin of cheery advertisement. "I can analyze and interpret most of the common body languages through two hundred thirty nine different cultures and speak over three hundred languages including dialects. I know and can exert sixty eight different schools of self defense and have a deep understanding of human anatomy and psycholo-... "

"Stop! ", Gavin interjected and lifted his hands in a manner to ward of the sudden stream of words. "Stop. Whatever made you think I'd care, be assured I pretty much don't."

RK900 blinked himself out of advertisement mode and answered with a deep chuckle. It was so weird that Gavin could pick up where he heard the noise before. This time it was Anderson in all but pitch of voice.

Gavin's bewilderment must have shown openly on his face, because suddenly RK900 smiled again one of his creepy template smiles - but didn't look particularly happy while doing so.

"The truth is", he said slowly, as if he wasn't sure whether he should speak at all. "To mimic is easy. What I see, I can copy. People like it when I look more like them. But... to learn on my own... to create things 'for myself'. It's hard. "

Gavin looked at him. Actually looked at RK900 while his words repeated in his mind over and over again. Creating things like a personality, a character, mannerisms, habits and preferences out of nothing...

Gavin felt his throat close up and he swallowed down the venom of over twenty years lived in a hell of not knowing himself at all. "It's scary, isn't it?", he rasped.

The android tilted his head in thought and then nodded in confirmation. "I just don't know how to do that, detective. I was made to follow orders. I was never intended to be... a person."

He sounded quite bitter while he said that. Even through his voice was utterly flat and toneless like anytime he talked about himself.

"I feel. I feel lots of things, in fact. But to identify and show them is distracting. And to do it in a way I haven't seen beforehand... It seems impossible. "

Gavin never thought he would be able to empathize with anyone about the issue of feelings.  
But this... this he could understand pretty well. To form himself out of nothing had been the most awe-inspiring experience of Gavin's god damn awful existence so far.

After half a lifetime of a brain potted in depressive black tar he didn't know to identify and interpret the simplest emotions and still couldn't handle anything that went deeper than blood hot anger.

He actually understood what RK900 meant - and felt suddenly even more tired for it.

His gaze went to the floor and the shards that were left of that god awful '#1 Grump' mug Tina had got him for the office some years ago. What he had wanted had been inside, though. Out of the shambles he pulled a key chain. Two copies were still left.

"No shame in being a lousy excuse of a human being, buddy", he said as he pried one of the keys off. "At least you are in fucking excellent company for that."

With a sullen look he turned around and shoved the key roughly into the breast pocket of RK900s sharp white shirt. "For the unfortunate day, you feel pathetically human enough to have a need for somewhere else to stay but the bullpen", he said but didn't sound particularly inviting.

To be honest, Gavin wouldn't know what to do with another person in his very personal space. He never housed with anyone he didn't literally want to murder, Elija being the only exception. But it seemed to him like the only right thing to do. RK900 never had a choice in anything. Gavin wanted to give him one that maybe even mattered some day.

RK900 didn't say anything, but watched Gavin intently while he still held the can and the corpse like cat in his hands. He looked utterly ridiculous. Gavin nodded to the CA-T007. "Is it even working?"

RK900 looked down and shook the last drops of thirium into the funnel before he carefully removed the tube and sat it aside. "We will see in short time. There is a note in there for you", he said and pointed to the lid of the parcel. He then proceeded to lift the tiny body higher onto his arms and started to carefully massage its limbs as to make sure the thirium reached all its critical components.

Gavin frowned as he reached for the white box. He had been way too distracted by the android animal to even notice the scrawl on the inside. It looked like someone had gone wild with just a blue biro. Obnoxiously petite letters in wide loopy handwriting, that just screamed 'rich intolerable jerk', formed the sentences: 'Congratulations for finally appreciating the genius of modern technology. Happy birthday, Dipshit.' Underneath the writing stuck an order confirmation from the Cyberlife shelter.

Two things first.

Firstly, Gavins birthday was the seventh of October, but Elijah never ever remembered any dates correctly. Secondly, Elijah seemed to be back in the saddle again and downright ready to spy on Gavin once more from afar.

Not only that, but Elijah seemingly just wanted to be an obnoxious asshat. The order confirmation was the real deal from the Florida shelter. The sticker on the underside of the parcel however said it was sent from Detroit.

Gavin let out a deep sigh, laced with huge amounts of that special kind of annoyance and exasperation he only used up for the bullshit his obnoxious little brother came up with. "I hate that little shit..."

RK900 looked up and scanned him intently. "No, you don't", he said with certainty. Gavin closed his eyes and lowered his head into his hands. "No, ... I really don't."

Gavin lifted his head again right as RK900 sat the cat down in the place between them. It stood stiff as a board till RK900 put a hand to its head and pressed his thumb down onto the LED on its temple.

Instantly the CA-T007 opened its wide grey eyes and blinked. It shifted its legs for a better distribution of its weight and balance. Its tail rolled from one side to the other. But aside from that it didn't move any further.

Gavin frowned and stretched out his hand. The tiny android didn't react to his touch at all and its LED shone in an unsettling white that Gavin only ever saw on androids in stasis. But the cat wasn't on standby at all. To make sure, Gavin lifted it into his lap and felt for the telling warmth of its body, the little gasps for air and even the artificial heartbeat. All things that shouldn't be a thing in stasis.

And even as Gavin shifted it back into position between them, it just stood there, waiting. Gavin felt his stomach coil and wrinkled up his nose in pure distaste. "Please tell me the little bugger is fine..."

RK900 eyed the android cat with a look that bore right through its biocomponents. Then he laid his hand on its tiny head while the illusion of his skin retracted and left the shining white of his actual shell exposed. Whatever RK900 was doing, he did it some more with fluttering eyelids and finally tilted his head in evaluation. "All of its systems are fully operational. It's not damaged."

Gavin narrowed his eyes in a dark premonition, because as things looked like now, there was lots of room for a big and fat -

"But with the revolution most of Cyberlifes Servers got shut down. This model doesn't have access to critical service and software updates."

Gavin slowly nodded in a daze and lowered his eyes again down to the tiny android between them. His fingers pulled lightly on one of its ears and he startled in fascination as it actually twitched. "Download content. Always hated that bullshit", he muttered and bared his teeth in an undirected snarl. "These 'critical service and software updates'", he said slowly. "Is there... I don't know, anything inside without them?"

In his thoughts Gavin speculated about a little android brain with a conscious spark inside. A thing that wanted to move but couldn't, because it was a slave to its very own programmed and therefore extremely limited nature.

RK900 watched him in open curiosity and asked him the hardest question of them all. "Would you want there to be?"

Gavin looked up and blinked daftly into the heavy silence that settled over them. The mindset under which he had completed the transaction all those weeks ago had been everything but a healthy one. He was indeed devastatingly lonely. At least to himself, when it mattered, he could be honest about that. He yearned for a companion, he couldn't deny that.

Gavin had decided for one of the shelter androids because the moment he had found out about them it had seemed cruel not to. And he was aware that a fleshy thing wouldn't survive in his proximity anyway, since Gavin often used to forget even to feed himself.

What made him hesitate though was the thought of being the whole world of a creature that most likely still was far more intelligent than him, but couldn't express itself to a human like other androids could. The thought of trapping a living thing into his personal hell with his aggressive mood swings, lack of words and his even greater lack of warmth, made him feel utterly sick. His gaze fell down onto the CA-T007 again and uncertain he furrowed his brows into a tight scowl.

But then he had a sudden idea. He blinked up to RK900 who studied him attentively. "You", Gavin said and had to clear his throat first. "If it were conscious, the little thing. Would you two be able to communicate?"

RK900 blinked and furrowed his brows in a way that reminded Gavin instantly of Connor. Maybe another pre-programmed template thing of the RK series. "When I said I speak three hundred languages", he said slowly as if he spoke to a child. "I didn't include 'Cat', Reed."

Gavin's face flushed in deep red that showed his annoyance pretty well on its own. "You useless dipshit fucking well know what I mean", he spat but was surprised as RK900s broke out in utterly delighted laughter. It was also a noise Gavin didn't recognize from anywhere. He marked that down as a pretty good sign.

RK900 laughter morphed into a wide and toothy grin, that looked at least as creepy as his awkward smiles. "Of course I can, Reed", he finally answered and thus made clear he understood Gavin's intentions pretty well.

Gavin felt his stomach lurch. Sharply he narrowed his eyes and pointed with shaking fingers at the artificial cat in front of him. "If this Android communicates to you, ever, that it doesn't want to be here", he spoke slowly, sharply, like he was making a threat. "You will tell me. Instantly. "

True, RK900 wasn't good with the expressions thing. He never lost his creepy smile. Unexpectedly he lifted his hand to Gavin's head and his shiny white index and middle finger grazed his temple right were the new scar was about to form. His touch was light enough to not even make Gavin wince. "Don't worry, I will. "

Then he lifted the cat back into his lap and his arms turned white all up to his elbows. With a flick of his thumb over the LED the cats wrinkly skin deactivated and turned its whole body into shiny plastic white and dark grey.

Gavin had no understanding of what he was doing. RK900s LED pulsed in steady blue with some minor blips of yellow, while his eyelids fluttered and twitched as if he was running diagnostics.

Suddenly the cats grey eyes opened wide, its tail twitched animatedly. Some seconds later its ears turned and twitched as if it was testing out their range of movement. Its paws curled into themselves. Suddenly its body turned in RK900s loose grip and it looked up right into Gavin's eyes. Curiously it leaned forward and let out a tiny little "mew!"

RK900 opened his eyes and pulled back his hands. As soon as the connection was broken the cats skin rushed back over its body and made it look so fascinatingly alive again. A little spooked, the tiny android took some even tinier steps into Gavin's direction.

Gavin held his breath as he stretched out his shaking hand. CA-T007 sniffed at his fingertips and its intelligent eyes twitched from Gavin's hand to his face and back. Eventually it decided to lean in.

The tiny androids head was surprisingly warm. Gavin could feel the little huffs of artificial breath that were designed to cool its systems. It started to purr, utterly at ease.

Gavin's heart hammered in his throat as the little thing went over to him and curled relaxed and closed eyed into his lap. His stiff fingers stroked its delicate neck, terrified to do something that would drive it away and-...

"Breathe, Reed."

Gavin took a gasping breath of air. His attention only shifted away from CA-T007 through RK900s hand on his elbow. The android still smiled with wide eyes and looked so very happy.

"It will need a name."

**Author's Note:**

> https://www.pillowfort.io/Rotschild


End file.
